Monday, September 28, 2009

When I was growing up, I listened to Casey Kasem on the weekend. Depending on the city you were in, depended when they ran the syndicated show. It was called something like American Top 40, and I think he counted down the top 40 hits, according to Billboard. Perhaps it was something else; I don't remember. The voice of Shaggy was the final word as to what song was popular on a given week.

He would tell the world of his mostly teenage audience not only which song occupied which spot, but how many spots certain songs climbed, as well as vignettes about some of the artists. I would pull for my favorite songs, listening to every word. Time just stood still during his program.

Well, I found the Billboard Top 100 today. And, holy crap, you can see who is in the top 100, as well as listen to most or all of the songs. For someone who is no longer cool (and cannot be trusted according to the hippies of the 60s), this is sort of interesting. I can't get into many of the songs of today, but it is an interesting diversion.

One interesting thing about Casey Kasem is that there was a rumor he was Islamic. Well, he is of Lebanese Druze heritage (which is too complicated for me to explain in my blog). It is generally considered an offshoot of Islam, but it has some interesting twists. I can remember some parents who were scared of Kasem, because they thought he was brainwashing American youth at a time where we were trying to repair relations between Israel and Egypt.

When I was a yuss, I never listened to AM, which is where that crap was heard.

I was into low band FM, where they played the entire B side of the album "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands", the entire length "Light My Fire" Frank Zappas complete musicology and the all time classic dirt road drinking song The Fugs "Fu&Ning Machine". You cant hear that chit any more.

And I dont think it was on AM. In the NYC area, you had battles over the stuff from the Beatles where the "Cousin Brucie" blurb in falsetto would be pitched on the song every 20 seconds when payola was in use and stations were paying mulla to get the first run of songs in major markets a day before every one else, and they did that crap so other stations could record the song over the air and then play it back for their audience.

I lived waaaaay up north (arctic circle we're talking) so we didn't get casey on our radios (just too far). But I had a friend who's dad built a horribly unattractive ham radio that I am pretty sure reached EVERYWHERE. We used to all get together (litterally about 70 teenagers) in their garage and listen in.

It makes me laugh when I see things about the 60's and how "isolated" they were with the radios and group informational sessions.... I mean that was the 80's and we were doing the very same things! lol..

About Leesa

LeesaI started blogging to improve my writing; I really did. Painters don't start with masterpieces – they start on scraps of paper, and even when planning a great work, they do many other drawings in preparation. I think writing is the same. You just don't start and finish a novel by merrily typing into the computer; you experiment. Blogging is sort of like a writer's doodling. So this is my scratch pad of sorts. This is less than scraps of paper actually, just 1s and 0s on your computer screen.

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Notes on this Blog

Some random notes about this blog:

1. Schedule. I started writing this blog in 1995, and over the past few years, I have tried to write every workday. Then in the summer of 2008, I quit writing for a month or so. Now I try writing three times per week. The quality waxes and wanes. Sorry about that.

2. Leesa's Mailbag. I am trying a new weekly/monthly/semi-annual blog entry called "Leesa's Mailbag". Over the last few years, people have emailed me with questions, and I have answered them on an individual basis. Now, I think I will answer them on a blog entry. Perhaps Friday. Not sure I will get enough questions to do this often, but I will try to answer questions. Sort of an Ann Landers with attitude. Just write to the email address below.3. My Stories. Yeah, I have a few erotic stories here. I know, they are not all that good, but they were fun to write. Don't read them if this offends you (and they represent less than 1% of the content here). These stories have elements of truth and fantasy, some more true than others. Complain about something that is a bit more substantive if you must complain. I have lots of faults.

4. Layout. My layout is clean and simple. You can tell me it is boring, and you would be right. I just don't want pink flowers and weird colors to get in the way of my words. I have customized my drop-down menus under "Quick Links" and "Blog Roll" so I had to use a little HTML.

Finally, there are loads of better bloggers here. If you like what you read, thanks. If you don't, thanks for dropping by (and I mean this). A few people who comment on my work add immensely to the experience.

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